Chart of the week | Getting the balance right – a new approach to policy costs?

A new report from research consultancy Public First has argued that the government should move the costs of energy policy from being heavily on electricity bills onto government expenditure. In this ‘Chart of the week’, we look at the four models for rebalancing put forward in the report.

Options for Energy Bill Reform, published on 29 April, models four scenarios (see Figure 1) for rebalancing the costs of gas and electricity consumption in the UK, to see how the government could increase uptake of heat pumps to meet its 2028 target of 600,000 a year.

To keep reading, please log in to your account

Related thinking

Home supply and services

Switching duck: electricity switches to remain subdued in the near future

In November 2021, switching levels plummeted in response to rising tariff prices and a lack of market choice. By January 2022, domestic switching reached its lowest level on record, falling 80% on January 2021. This 'Chart of the week' checks in with the options, if any, available to households wanting...

Home supply and services

Last Resort Supplier Payments: the impact on domestic electricity bills

The presence of a significant increase in commodity costs in 2021, combined with the Default Tariff Cap limiting the revenues that suppliers can recover in the domestic market, has contributed to a number of suppliers falling into insolvency in the last 9 months. The Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) process...

Home supply and services

The default tariff cap: More questions than answers?

Throughout the recent period of wholesale and supply market volatility, the government and Ofgem have remained committed to the default tariff cap and continued to highlight its benefits to customers in protecting them from rising energy prices this winter. However, Cornwall Insight’s forecast of the default tariff cap for Summer...

Home supply and services

Ticking Clock

With the political debate regarding energy prices and their impacts on the cost of living – not to mention the economy at large – the default tariff cap announcement for Summer 2022 from Ofgem at the start of next month is the most anticipated since the cap’s inception.

Low carbon generation

The outlook for private wire business models

Interest in private wire arrangements has grown in recent years, with the benefits of network and policy cost avoidance becoming a key incentive for generators to look at this development approach. In this Chart of the Week, we look at the expected evolution of cost avoidance over the next five...

Home supply and services

Chart of the week | Default tariff cap set to rise by at least £100 for coming winter

The default tariff price cap for a typical dual fuel direct debit customer looks set to increase by over £100 for the Winter 2021-22 period, according to an initial assessment from Cornwall Insight’s bi-annual tariff cap predictor. The latest forecast for the cap indicates that it will increase to around...

Home supply and services

Chart of the week | Green hair, green branches, green skin, green tariffs?

In this 'Chart of the week', we look at how prevalent green supply has become, unpick some of the drivers behind this, and look at the challenges now facing consumers, suppliers and policy makers confronted by a sea of green.  Over recent years, we estimate the percentage of households with...

Home supply and services

Chart of the week | SoLR process sees largest supplier exit

This January saw the largest supplier exit through Ofgem’s Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) process. Green Network Energy ceased to trade on 27 January, with Ofgem appointing EDF Energy as SoLR for its 360,000 domestic customers shortly after. On the same day, the regulator announced the exit of Simplicity Energy,...